According to the Competition Committee, in the first quarter of 2026, more than 190 pharmacies in Uzbekistan illegally obtained over 1.4 billion soums for medicines. The pharmacies applied inflated trade margins in approximately 110,500 cases.
The committee stated that measures have been taken to return these funds to consumers. Based on a presidential decree from October 2022, a digital system for monitoring drug prices and protecting consumer rights was introduced.
At the committee's proposal, from March 2026, the control over reference prices for medicines was strengthened. Now, when medicines are sold at wholesale prices above the established reference price, tax authorities automatically suspend the registration of invoices — a validation system is applied.
According to the committee, this mechanism has prevented artificial price increases in the wholesale market and limited the supply of overpriced medicines to more than 12,500 retail pharmacies.
Over the past period, it was found that about 2,500 pharmacies in approximately 686,000 cases exceeded the maximum trade margins by 10% to three times. As a result, consumers were illegally charged 21.1 billion soums.
The Competition Committee recommended that citizens check the permitted prices of medicines through the register of reference prices. In case of unjustified price increases, they can contact the short number 1159.
In May 2023, the committee introduced a separate module in the FAIR Tech information system. When registering QR codes of receipts related to the purchase of medicines and medical products via the 'Soliq' mobile app, if an excess of the established margins is detected, the system automatically sends a notification to the committee.
Wholesale and retail trade of medicines and medical products is carried out taking into account maximum trade margins. For wholesale trade, it is no more than 15% of the purchase price; for retail trade, no more than 20% of the wholesale price.
Earlier, it was reported that in the first quarter of 2026, 25 pharmacies operating without a license were identified and held accountable. The most cases were recorded in Samarkand. According to the law, legal entities face a fine of up to 300 times the base calculation value (123.6 million soums) for such violations.
Source: www.gazeta.uz